


a cupid in the making

by softtofustew



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Humour, M/M, Rated T for Jisung's Mouth, basically me typing aggressively for TWELVE HOURS and this is product lol, seungmin-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:02:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27535705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softtofustew/pseuds/softtofustew
Summary: never, and seungmin reiterates,neverhas he ever been startled awake at the goddamned crack of dawn at seven in the morning byhan jisungof all people -thehan jisung who sleeps like a log until mid-day, who lounges in bed all day on their days off watching random youtube videos, who has never, ever burst into seungmin’s room carrying a crying baby in his arms-“-wait,” seungmin says. “who the fuck is that?”or the one where felix ages backwards overnight and the rest of them are forced to babysit him. or the one where seungmin learns a little more than he needs to know about the romance brooding between his friends, all the while juggling a crying toddler in his arms
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Hwang Hyunjin
Comments: 27
Kudos: 258





	a cupid in the making

**Author's Note:**

> idek what the hell is this lmao i had this idea back in april and thanks to STUDY BURNOUT i managed to type this in twelve hours. yeet-haw. i haven't properly proofread this baby so im gonna do that another day lol enjoy i guess!!

Never, and Seungmin reiterates, _never_ has he ever been startled awake at the goddamned crack of dawn at seven in the morning by _Han Jisung_ of all people - _the_ Han Jisung who sleeps like a log until mid-day, who lounges in bed all day on their days off watching random YouTube videos, who has never, _ever_ burst into Seungmin’s room carrying a crying baby in his arms-

“-wait,” Seungmin says. “Who the fuck is _that_?”

“I don’t know who the fuck this is!” Jisung screams. “I woke up because this kid slobbered all over my fucking face in my sleep!”

Hyunjin stumbles into the room right after Jisung, tripping over his heels. “Don’t swear in front of the baby!” he hisses.

Seungmin blinks. And blinks some more. He even pinches his arm, just to double check that the baby in front of him, in Jisung’s arms, is an actual, real-life baby. He throws the covers off of him and scrambles to his feet. “Are you kidding me? How did a baby suddenly come into our dorm? Do the others know?”

“No,” Jisung whines. “Chan-hyung overslept in the studio, and Changbin-hyung, Minho-hyung and Jeongin went to the gym - and they didn’t even see the baby in my bed!-”

“-wait,” Seungmin interrupts. His eyes widen like saucers. It doesn’t seem true, but… the toddler’s cries have ebbed away, instead replaced by a pout on his lips. And his features are so… prominent. The little boy’s wide eyes practically glimmer under the lights of the room. There’s something so familiar in the toddler’s face, his cheeks puffed out, blonde hair dishevelled. And the _freckles…_

“Guys,” Seungmin says slowly. “Where’s Felix?”

Hyunjin and Jisung exchange a look. They glance down at the baby — and they scream. 

“Don’t drop him!” Seungmin screeches. He darts across the room quickly enough to catch Felix from a shrieking Jisung’s arms. “He’s gonna get brain damage!”

“ _I_ have brain damage!” Jisung wails. He clutches his head in his hands and bugs his eyes out comically. “This is a dream, right? That’s not Felix, right? Right?!”

Seungmin glimpses down at the little toddler. He can’t be more than three or four years old, but he’s unmistakably Felix. Felix, their bandmate, their best friend, their _twenty-year-old_ best friend, has now shrunk into a three-year-old’s body. 

Just great.

He hoists him up higher in his arms and stares right into Felix’s wide eyes. “Hey, little fella,” he says softly. “What’s your name?”

Felix blinks. “Felix! Felix Lee Yongbok!” he replies cheerily.

“Holy shit,” Hyunjin breathes. “His voice is so _squeaky._ ”

“He’s a kid, what do you think, dumbass?” Jisung retorts.

Seungmin braces himself not to drop the kid out of shock. He steadies the toddler in his arms, and walks around to sit down on the edge of his bed. “Uh, Felix?” he swallows. “Do you… do you know who I am?”

Felix grins. “Yeah! You’re Seungminnie-hyung, right?”

“He remembers us,” Jisung whispers. 

Felix swivels around in Seungmin’s arms and points at Hyunjin. “That’s Hyunjinnie-hyung! Oh, and stinky Sungie-hyung!”

“What the _fuck_ did you call me-”

“-language!” Seungmin cries. 

Hyunjin giggles. “He remembers everything, but with the mentality of an actual kid. This is gonna be fun.”

“This is _not_ fun,” Seungmin huffs. “Our friend literally aged backwards overnight, and you’re saying this is _fun_ ?” He groans as he sets Felix down on the mattress, his arms already aching from the weight of the toddler. “How are we going to explain this to the managers? The other members? _Chan-hyung?!_ ”

“Chan-hyung is going to freak the fuck out,” Jisung shudders. “He’s going to blow the whole dormitory up.”

Hyunjin places a reassuring hand on Jisung’s back. “Well, first off, we need to figure out what made Felix become a kid overnight. Also, what was he doing in your bed last night?”

Seungmin watches carefully as Jisung raises his arms up in defence. “Look, it was a bro-to-bro talk, bro.”

“About what?”

There’s a sliver of envy laced in his words — just a sliver, but enough for Seungmin to pick up. He arches an eyebrow at the two of them as Jisung defends himself. “About… bro things! It’s personal, dude.”

Hyunjin looks pointedly at Felix, then back at Jisung. “Look, whatever it is,” he says slowly. “We’re going to need to break this news out to the others. Gently-”

“-over text!” Jisung interrupts. “I think they’d freak out more if we thrust a baby Felix right into their arms.”

Seungmin rubs away at the impending headache forming at the front of his forehead. “Well then, I’m not going to-”

“-you have to do it, Seungmin!” Jisung wails. “You must!”

“I’ll supply the picture,” Hyunjin adds.

Seungmin groans. He glances at toddler Felix, gazing up at him with his too big eyes. His eyes are already enrapturing by themselves, but teemed with the smaller face and chubby cheeks, Felix is pretty much the epitome of a perfect child. Knowing he can’t argue against that, he grumbles and snatches up his phone from the bedside table.

Jisung squeals. “You’re the best best bestest friend in the world, Minnie!” he coos. “Alright, how ‘bout we get a photo of you and Felix, and-”

“-you’re making this more uncomfortable than it should be, Ji,” Seungmin says flatly, as Jisung rushes over and deposits the toddler onto Seungmin’s lap. Seungmin steadies the little boy in his arms, and glances up just in time for the flash to practically blind him completely. “Dude! A little warning could’ve helped!”

Hyunjin shrugs. “Sorry,” he offers, already typing away. “What’s the caption?”

“Kim Seungmin, 20, father of one-”

“-yah! Give me my phone!”

“Aaaaaand sent!” Hyunjin shrills, and tosses the phone onto the bed. “Goddamn, that was scary.”

Seungmin groans. “Now we wait and see,” he gripes.

⇄

“Wait.” Changbin blinks. “So that wasn’t Photoshop?”

Jeongin inches closer to baby Felix, who’s sat on the couch twiddling around with Seungmin’s phone. “He’s so tiny!” he cooes.

Minho drags a towel over his damp forehead, frowning. “Is this real life, or the post-gym haze?” he asks, squinting at Felix. “He’s-”

“-what the actual flying fuck happened?!”

All seven of them jump at the sound of the dormitory room door slamming open. Chan marches into the room, sweating buckets, face pale. When his eyes land on Felix, he drops his case to the floor. “Someone please tell me this isn’t real.”

Seungmin sighs and folds his arms across his chest. “It’s real.”

Chan’s eyes flit over to Seungmin. “Break it down for me. What happened?”

Seungmin swallows. “Jisung was sharing his bed with Felix last night and the both of them fell asleep. And when Jisung woke up… Felix was a kid.”

Distress is scribbled all over Chan’s face. He walks over to the couch, drops down to a crouch and stares right into Felix’s eyes. “Hey, buddy,” Chan gulps. “Do you… do you know who I am?”

Felix glimpses up from Seungmin’s phone. He shows off a toothy grin. “Of course!” he squeaks. “You’re Channie-hyung! Hyung! Up, up!”

“What?” Minho furrows his eyebrows. “What does he mean by ‘up’?”

Seungmin notices how Felix has set the phone down, instead raising his arms up in the air indignantly. “Hyung,” Seungmin says. “He wants you to, uh, carry him.”

Chan exchanges confused glances between Seungmin and Felix. “Uhhhh, okay then?” Chan scoops Felix into his arms and carries him up. Felix giggles, squealing as Chan bounces him up and down in his arms. “Well, this is new,” he muses.

Changbin’s jaw goes slack. “So, he remembers everyone, everything about us, but with a mind of a kid his age?” he asks slowly.

“Yeah,” Hyunjin replies. “Guess what he called Jisung?”

“Hyunjin, don’t-”

“-Stinky-sungie!” he hollers, and Jeongin and Minho burst into laughter. Changbin hides his laugh behind a cough, whilst Jisung burns red with shame. “He said it out loud, it was so funny, and-”

“-okay, wait,” Chan pauses. Silence falls in a curtain over the room. “Jokes aside, I don’t get how Felix turned into a kid overnight. What’s the science behind that?”

“Maybe it’s sorcery,” Jisung offers. 

“Magic?” Jeongin suggests.

Minho sniffs. “Maybe we’re all hallucinating right now?”

As Chan continues bouncing Felix in his arms, he frowns. “Well, firstly, we need to speak to our managers about this,” he says slowly. “We don’t have anything scheduled except that interview this Thursday; we’ll have to cancel that. For practices and classes, say Felix is down with a cold or something. And in the meantime, uh…” He wrinkles his nose. “Felix, did you just poop your pants?”

“He’s not potty-trained?!” Changbin screeches.

“I didn’t get potty-trained till I was five, soooooo…” Jisung wiggles his eyebrows.

Chan grimaces and sets Felix right into Jisung’s arms. “Great, Jisung, thanks for volunteering to change his nappy.”

“He’s not even wearing a diaper!” Jisung groans, steadying the toddler in his arms. “And we don’t have any baby clothes for him, either. He’s being swallowed by his shirt!”

Chan rubs his forehead. Seungmin notices how tense his shoulders are — after all, it isn’t every day that your group member, roommate, best friend and suddenly aged backwards overnight. And yet, Chan regains his composure and clasps his hands together. “Alright, here’s the plan. I’ll go talk to our managers right now, and hopefully this is going to be kept amongst ourselves, our managers, and JYP-sunbaenim. Minho and Jeongin, go online shopping for some clothes and diapers and stuff. Seungmin, Changbin, go buy soft food and milk for him. And Hyunjin, Jisung… ” A ghost of a smirk tickles Chan’s lips, “Have fun changing his pants.”

“Wait, wait, hyung!” Jisung whines, but Chan is already off and out the door. He groans aloud and plops Felix into Hyunjin’s arms. “I’m not gonna do it, you do it.”

“No, hyung said the both of us have to do it!”

“But Hyuuuuunjiiiin!”

Seungmin sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. This is definitely _not_ how he thought his day off would go. 

⇄

“That,” Jisung groans, “was the worst experience of my life.”

Behind him, Hyunjin trudges out of the bedroom with Felix in his arms. “Well, the good thing is that he’s _actually_ potty-trained,” he announces. “He just really needed to go.

Outside in the living room, Seungmin’s crouched over Changbin’s laptop, scrolling through the different brands of milk on sale. “I never knew there were this many milk brands,” he frowns. He clicks through a few of them, reading each label carefully. “Formula milk for 3-5 year olds ‘for good growth’. Fresh milk… ‘healthy milk from healthy cows’? ‘Let’s make this universe a universe of milk’?! Which one am I supposed to buy?”

Directly opposite him, Minho and Jeongin seem to have encountered a dilemma themselves. “He _obviously_ can’t fit an XS size, hyung,” Jeongin insists, clicking away. “Look at him! He definitely needs an S size.”

“We haven’t even taken any measurements,” Minho points out. 

“We don’t have measuring tape,” Jeongin retorts. “So we have to go with our best judgement- ooh! This shirt looks cute, right? I think we should get a few of these.”

Out of the blue, Changbin emerges from the kitchen in a tornado. His hair is sticking up at almost every end, and Seungmin thinks there’s some sauce spilled on his tee shirt, too. “Voila! Chef Binnie has created the best masterpiece of the century — healthy baby food!”

“More like the _only_ masterpiece of the century,” Minho sniggers. “I’ve never seen him cook in a really long time.”

Curiosity gets the better of him, and Jisung jogs over to where Changbin is and peers into the bowl he’s holding. “What did you- Oh, wow.” Jisung blinks. Stunned, he exchanges glances from Changbin, then back to the bowl. “Uh. Interesting choice of food, hyung. Looks… looks delectable. Yum.”

“What catastrophe did you cook to poison our poor Lixie?” Hyunjin choruses, bouncing Felix up and down in his arms. His long hair’s pulled back into a low ponytail, and Seungmin can see how Hyunjin’s gritting his teeth so as not to yowl in pain every time Felix tugs on his hair. 

“It’s not a catastrophe!” Changbin bites back. He sets it on the dining table, in between Seungmin, Jeongin and Minho. “He’ll love it!”

Minho sneaks a glance at the bowl and winces. “Oh, I pray for his bowels,” he mutters.

Even Jeongin, who always supports Changbin no matter what, wrinkles his nose. “Hyung, what the actual hell is that?” he asks.

Based off of all the comments, Seungmin doesn’t dare to even spare a glance at the bowl. Yet, he peers slightly over the edge of the laptop and almost gags. Seungmin supposes Changbin was going for some soft rice, but he’d quite obviously added way too much water — the rice grains were sloppy and drenched in the sea of water. Lumps of carrots and peas were drizzled amongst the rice, with a sad-looking fried egg singed at the edges decorating the top of the rice pudding… or whatever that is.

“You are _not_ feeding him that,” Seungmin commands. “He’s going to get sick, and that’s going to be a problem. We can’t afford to get a doctor, hyung.”

Changbin waves a hand dismissively in the air. “Seungminnie ah, you’re always so mean to me,” he pouts. “It’ll be fine! He’ll feel so energised after this.”

With a very restless Felix in his arms, Hyunjin shuffles over to the dining table. He winces as Felix tugs on a stray strand of hair. “Ah, Lix, please don’t pull my hair,” he whines.

Felix smiles, and only pulls harder.

As Hyunjin howls, Seungmin sighs and stands. “C’mon, Lix, come here.” Hyunjin hurriedly hands Felix over to him before turning to clutch his head. Seungmin steadies the boy in his arms and bounces him up and down. “Look, Lixie, aren’t you hungry? Binnie hyung made this for you.”

Felix takes one look at the bowl, and outright groans. “Ew.” He wrinkles his nose. “That doesn’t look like food.”

In an instance, both Jeongin and Minho burst into laughter. Next to them, Changbin flushes beetroot red. “Come on, Felix!” he pleads. “It looks really delicious, right?”

Felix shakes his head furiously. He even starts blabbering and- Oh, that’s not a good sign. “Lixie, don’t cry!” Seungmin hushes him, but it’s too late. The tears have spilled past the corners of his eyes, and now he’s wailing into Seungmin’s neck, drenching his collar with salty tears. Seungmin sighs, bouncing Felix a little more. His arms are already starting to wear out. “Hush, Felix, what do you want to eat, then? We’ll make it for you, okay? What do you want to eat?”

With his head resting on Seungmin’s shoulder, the boy sniffs. “I want cake,” he whispers.

“He wants cake,” Seungmin announces.

“Great.” Jisung throws his hands up in the air in defeat. “The guy who wants cake is the only guy amongst us who can _actually_ bake a decent cake.”

“We can always order one online,” Jeongin pipes up.

“What about my food?!” Changbin shrills. “Are we just going to waste my efforts?”

“ _Yes,_ ” all of them deadpan. 

Whilst Changbin shuffles over to a corner to cry, Minho sighs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Obviously, we can’t just be feeding him cake for lunch,” he says. “We’ll need to get him to eat something else too, a proper meal. How about we buy him cake for dessert, and we order some food off of a children’s menu?”

Hyunjin frowns. “What if someone suspects something? I mean, what are we going to say? ‘Hi, this is JYP Entertainment, we’d like a fish and chips from the children’s menu’? That’ll sound fishy, right?”

“This is more complicated than I thought,” Jisung groans, dramatically bringing a hand to his forehead and sighing loudly. “If only he hadn’t turned into a toddler in my bed.”

“Look,” Seungmin interjects. “I’ll cook, okay? Technically, Changbin’s recipe isn’t a flop-”

“-oh, thank you, Seungminnie!-”

“-just significantly disastrous,” Seungmin finishes. “And while I’m cooking, we can buy a slice of cake or something for Felix.”

Hyunjin raises his hand up in the air. “I’ll help you cook!” he hollers.

Changbin pokes his head into the conversation. “Hey, I can help too-”

“-no,” all of them deadpan. 

That leaves Changbin and Jisung on babysitting duty, Minho and Jeongin on online shopping and cake-ordering duty, and Hyunjin and Seungmin to cook up a lunch good enough to appease Felix. Though it’s been a while since he’s cooked, Seungmin’s determined not to mess this up. He retrieves the chopping board, washes the knife and fetches a few vegetables from the fridge, while Hyunjin begins cracking an egg and setting the pan to fry it.

For the next few minutes, everyone seems so engrossed with their responsibilities that the dormitory falls silent, save for Felix’s giggles as Jisung tickles him and Changbin watches a cat video with him. Within half an hour, Seungmin and Hyunjin have prepared a rice bowl, topped with sliced vegetables, fried egg and dried seaweed. Proud of their work, Hyunjin snaps a photo of it and grins. “I’m going to save this in a new folder,” he chuckles. “ _FELIX BABY_ photos.”

Seungmin sets the steaming bowl down onto the dining table. “Lunch is served!” he announces.

Changbin strolls into the room with the boy in his arms, Felix laughing as the older tickles his sides. “I hate to admit,” Changbin grouches, “but you actually did a better job than I did.”

“Of course we did, hyung,” Seungmin snickers. “Now, it’s time for the taste test.”

All eyes dart to Felix. Changbin seats himself down on the chair and carefully balances Felix on his leg. “Alrighty, Felix, are you ready to EAT?!” 

The rest of them wince at how loud Changbin’s voice is, but the youngest doesn’t seem to mind. Instead, he makes grabby hands for the bowl and a spoon. Seungmin deposits both right in front of them, and leans back to watch. The air is thick with tension as they all look on in silence, at Felix snatching up the spoon, scooping up a spoonful of rice and gobbling it down. 

Seungmin swears he can hear a pin drop in this silence. “So?” he asks quietly. “How is it?”

Felix chews for a long while, before swallowing. “It’s good, but it’s not cake,” he says, before continuing to wolf down the rest of the rice bowl.

All six of them heave a huge sigh of relief. Jeongin slumps in his seat with a shaky breath. “I have never felt so tense watching a toddler eat his lunch,” he admits. 

Both Seungmin and Hyunjin high five each other gleefully, whilst Jisung pokes fun at Changbin. “Guess your masterpiece of the century failed, hyung,” he chuckles, earning him a jab in the ribs. 

Minho glimpses up from the laptop screen and grins. “Can’t wait to see what dinner Changbin tries to cook him tonight,” he sniggers, much to everyone’s interest and Changbin’s indignation.

⇄

By the time Chan returns from talking to their managers, they’ve managed to get Felix to shower and dry his hair, before tucking him into bed for an afternoon nap. The rest of the day had gone smoothly, save for Changbin narrowly slipping on a soap bar in the shower while trying to scrub Felix’s hair. Chan has to smother his laughter when he returns to a room of six grown men all laying on the floor, completely out of steam.

“I take it that Felix is sleeping?” he asks as he trudges into the room.

Jisung groans as he peels himself up from the floor. “Hyung, it was terrible,” he complains. “It was an absolute mess.”

From across the room, Changbin sniffs. “All you had to do was sing a lullaby to him,” he grumbles. “And he barely even heard you; he was already out before you finished singing the first verse.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Hyunjin adds. “You forgot the lyrics to ‘It’s A Small, Small World’. Who the hell doesn’t know the lyrics to that?”

Chan chuckles dryly as he plops himself down onto the couch. “I’ve talked to the managers, by the way,” he says. “They’re as surprised as we are, but we agreed to sort of… wait it out and see what happens. We really don’t want to risk any outsiders finding out that Felix aged backwards overnight. If things don’t change within the next few days, we’ll probably have no choice but consult someone.”

“Who _is_ there to consult?” Minho wonders aloud. “I mean, has anyone ever heard of people aging backwards overnight?”

Seungmin frowns. “Jisung, did you _really_ not see how Felix transformed into a toddler in your own bed?”

“Yah.” Jisung raises his arms up in defence. “I was out like a log, alright? How was I to know my best friend was going to turn into a baby overnight? I don’t have some baby cam on him, yo.”

Meanwhile, Chan presses his hand to his forehead and sighs. “I asked for a week off for all of us,” he continues. “I don’t think any of us are in the right state of mind to just continue to practise whilst our bandmate has turned into a kid, and goodness knows if he’ll even turn back…” 

To Seungmin’s great shock, he realises Chan is _crying._ All of them exchange glances with each other as Chan buries his head in his hands and begins sobbing. Hurriedly, Seungmin rubs a comforting hand over the older’s back. The rest of them scoot across the floor to pat Chan’s head, or hug him. “Hyung,” Jeongin whispers. “Don’t be stressed about this, okay?"

Chan sighs and wipes his tears. “Sorry about that,” he mutters. “Just… what if he doesn’t turn back to a twenty-year-old? What happens next? What are we going to do? How are we going to break the news to everyone else?”

“Now, now,” Minho interjects, ruffling Chan’s hair. “We’re all worried about Felix, too, but we can only wait it out and see what happens, right? For now, we have to work together to make sure nothing else happens to him, and he stays a happy, healthy three-year-old kid. We can worry about all that in the future.”

Now that Seungmin thinks about it, the rest of them hadn’t really thought that far ahead, perhaps because they had all too preoccupied with entertaining Felix and fixing lunch for him. He can only imagine the weight of responsibility Chan feels for this entire incident, even though it isn’t even his fault, or anyone’s, for the matter — that’s simply how Chan is. Seungmin supposes the situation’s heavier on Chan’s shoulders than anyone else’s, considering how close he is with Felix, after all.

Chan sniffs. “Thanks, guys,” he mumbles. “I guess I just went into a frenzy then. It’s not… it’s not every day your friend turns into a toddler, huh?”

“Definitely not,” Changbin chimes in. “Don’t worry, hyung, all of us are going to help make sure Felix is the happiest toddler to walk this Earth!”

The rest of them shoot weird looks at Changbin. “What? Is it a crime to feel optimistic about this? I feel better about my cooking skills now, too!”

No one responds to Changbin for the rest of the afternoon.

⇄

Nighttime falls, and once Felix wakes up at around seven, he’s bounding off and running from room to room, much to Changbin’s chagrin as the older desperately tries to catch a hold of the younger one. The dormitory buzzes with activity, as everyone begins to adjust their schedules to fit in with looking after baby Felix. Chan helps Seungmin out with cooking fried rice for dinner, Jeongin finishes off online shopping for milk and some kid’s toys for Felix, and the rest of them decide to entertain Felix.

“Where’s Hyunjin?” Jisung abruptly asks as he enters the kitchen. His hair looks like an absolute mess, as if he’d gotten electrocuted; Seungmin suspects Felix has begun tugging at everyone’s hair now. “Has anyone seen him?”

Seungmin shakes his head. “Nope,” he says. “You can try his room?”

As if on cue, Hyunjin strides into the bedroom. With a proud expression splayed across his face, he lifts up a small grey tee up in the air. “Ta-da!” he grins. “I managed to sew a small shirt using my old sweatshirt, for Felix.”

Shocked, Chan drops his spatula to the floor. “Since when did you know how to make clothes?” he blinks, beyond astonished. Even Seungmin is impressed.

Hyunjin laughs. “I went for a needlework workshop when I was younger,” he explains, shyly. “I managed to dig up my sewing kit from my drawers, and I guess I tried my hand with sewing clothes for Felix. I even found a measuring tape and got Felix’s measurements while he was asleep.”

Seungmin’s eyes land on Jisung, whose ears have turned irrevocably red. “Wow,” he whistles lowly. “I did not know you could sew.”

“Well,” Hyunjin replies slowly. “Now you know.”

While Chan busies himself with washing the spatula he’d dropped, Seungmin stares on at his two friends in confusion. Baffled, his eyes flicker between the two of them, who’ve fallen silent and instead resorted to gazing at each other weirdly. It’s Hyunjin who breaks eye contact first, and prances off into the living room to get Felix to try on his new shirt. 

By the time Jisung exits the kitchen, Seungmin notices how flushed his face looks.

“Hey, hyung,” Seungmin mutters. “Haven’t you realised how… uh, different Hyunjin and Jisung are recently?”

Chan peers up from the sink. “Huh? What do you mean?” 

Seungmin purses his lips together. “I don’t know. I just feel like something’s changed between the both of them. It reminds me a lot of our trainee days.”

“What, when they were bickering every other day?” Chan snorts. “I’m sure they’re past that phase now- Oh, shit,” he curses, as he rushes to turn the tap off, realising the sink is now overflowing with soap bubbles. Their conversation ends there, and Seungmin returns to his work, his mind preoccupied with the unabashed look of admiration and… something else on Jisung’s face.

Dinner is served about half an hour later, and this time Chan volunteers to steady Felix on his lap, since they’ve all realised the table is far too high for him. Chan seems to enjoy it, though, from the way he mimes an airplane as he spoon-feeds Felix with fried rice.

“Chan hyung,” Minho calls. “You do realise he’s, like, three or four, right? He can hold his own spoon.”

Chan glimpses up at Minho and purses his lips together. “But this is fun!” he comments. “Right, Lixie?” 

Felix just makes grabby hands at the spoon, and Chan chuckles as he brings the spoon close to the boy’s mouth. Out of them all, Felix seems the quietest around Chan, much to the disappointment of Changbin’s bruised ego. The rest of them snatch up the opportunity to take a breather from their caretaking duties and gobble down their dinner. Seungmin thinks they’ve never eaten dinner this fast before, nor have they eaten such a large portion of rice before. 

As soon as he’s done with dinner, Felix is already yawning. “I mean, he gets sleepy when he eats a lot,” Chan points out. “Perhaps that stuck with him when he turned into a toddler. C’mon, Lixie, let’s go brush our teeth!”

With that, Minho follows up with Chan to help with washing Felix up. Jeongin voluntarily helps to clean up alongside Changbin, and Seungmin decides to help clear the living room of the odd shirts, blankets and mats that they’d laid out on the floor while entertaining Felix. As soon as he’s done folding the mats, he balances them in his arms and shuffles over to his room to keep them in the closet.

When he reaches the door, though, he hears Jisung’s distinct voice drifting from the crack in the door left ajar. Seungmin instantly backs away, but he cranes his neck to listen in. He knows better than to eavesdrop on his friends, but curiosity is definitely killing him more than the cat by now.

From where he’s standing, he can barely make out what Hyunjin’s saying back in response, but he hears Jisung say something. “You know we can’t,” he whispers. “Just… forget about it, okay?”

Seungmin swallows. Usually, whenever any of them had a problem with another member, it would be so blatantly obvious that everyone else around them would force them into a room to talk things out. And even then, they’d consult the other members for advice. This is… this is definitely new to Seungmin. 

_What_ can’t _they do?_ Seungmin ponders. He can’t pinpoint when exactly the mood between his two friends had shifted, but he definitely knows something has changed. The air whenever he’s in the same room with Hyunjin and Jisung is heavier, thicker, but he can never understand why. 

Deciding it best not to disturb the both of them, Seungmin tiptoes over to Chan’s room. He shoves the door open to reveal Chan tucking Felix into bed, with Minho making weird cooing noises over the both of them. He ignores them as he wrenches the door to the cupboard open, and dumps the mats and blankets inside there. 

When he swivels around, he’s surprised to see Felix already snoozing away. “Well, that was fast,” he muses. 

Chan grins. There’s the clear look of adoration on his face. His eyes seem to glimmer with a thousand stars as he strokes Felix’s cheek with his index finger. “He definitely gets super sleepy after eating,” he murmurs.

Minho chortles. “At this rate, Chan might actually turn into a legit dad by the end of the week,” he whispers to Seungmin.

For the rest of the night, everyone else is too exhausted to do anything else. Changbin, Hyunjin and Jeongin decide to pop in a movie before promptly passing out on the couch, whilst Minho and Chan turn in early for the night. 

That leaves Seungmin and Jisung. 

Seungmin cracks the door to Jisung’s room open, only to reveal the latter in bed watching something on his phone. Mustering up every bit of courage in his body, Seungmin strides into the room and closes the door behind him. The click of the door startles Jisung from his video, and he removes his earphones. “Seungmin?”

“Hey,” he grins. “Any space for me?”

Jisung readjusts himself, emptying a spot for Seungmin to sit at. “Wild day, right?” Jisung says.

Seungmin nods. “Definitely.”

“Baby Felix is honestly super cute, though. A ball of energy, sure, but still cute.”

Seungmin sighs. “That’s not the only thing wild about today,” he finally says.

Puzzled, Jisung sets his phone down and furrows his eyebrows at his friend. “Whaddya mean?”

“I mean,” Seungmin answers, “I don’t mean to pry, but something’s going on between you and Hyunjin, right?”

At the very moment Seungmin mentions the guy’s name, Jisung’s shoulders seize up. A warm colour of crimson red rises up his neck and snakes up to the apples of his cheeks. “There’s nothing going on?” he claims, his tone feeble. “What do you mean there’s something going on?”

Seungmin sighs. “Jisung. I’ve known you for years now. I know when something’s up. And if you don’t want to talk about it, then it’s cool. I’ll just… I’ll just go to sleep.”

But before Seungmin can make a move to slide out of bed, Jisung’s hand flies out to capture Seungmin’s wrist. “Wait, wait, okay,” Jisung exhales shakily. “I’ll tell you. I’ve been meaning to tell you, anyways; I just didn’t know that you… that you noticed it.”

Nodding his head, Seungmin coaxes Jisung to continue talking. “Okay, well, you really have to promise me that you won’t tell the other members — at least not yet, okay? Like, this has to remain between you and me.”

“Okay-”

“-pinkie promise it on your life,” Jisung insists. He raises his pinkie finger.

Chuckling, Seungmin nods as he wraps his own pinkie finger around his friend’s. “Yes, pinkie promise. Now, will you tell me what is-”

“-we kissed.”

Seungmin chokes on air. “What the-” He coughs, hacking away at thin air. Shocked, Jisung quickly pats the other’s back, apologies spilling from his lips in a string of incoherent bubbling noises. 

Meanwhile, Seungmin’s mind pounds with the two words he just heard. _We kissed._

“I…” Seungmin clears his throat. “You _have_ to start from the beginning.”

“Oh, well, okay,” Jisung chirps. “First off, we met back in 2017, when Hyunjin first came into JYP after he passed his audition here-”

He yowls in pain as Seungmin chucks him on the back of his head with his stuffed toy. “I didn’t mean the beginning of the Jurassic Period, dumbass. I meant, why, when and _how_ in the name of sweet hell did the both of you end up kissing?”

“Oh,” Jisung blinks. “Okay, um. I guess this happened on the last day of promotions, which was more than a week ago? So we came back from promotions, and we showered and stuff, right? I’m lying down in bed, and Hyunjin comes over and asks if he can cuddle with me, and I’m like ‘Okay, sure, harmless cuddling’. We do that all the time, right? Totally, it’s a huge bro-thing between us, we always cuddle, so there’s nothing wrong with that, right?

“We’re watching this video about geckos on my phone, and Hyunjin suddenly says, ‘Hey, you look like one of those geckos.’ Of course, I ask him if he’s lost his damned mind, and he says maybe, yes, because he’s sitting right next to me, and I quote, ‘Your hair smells intoxicatingly nice, and I think the fumes are messing with my head’. And then we have this really weird moment where I’m staring right into his eyes, and he’s staring right into mine, and by the way, his beauty mark is really, really sexy! Anyways, it’s like one of those dramas at Episode 8 where there’s a dozen different camera shots zooming in on the main character and their lover’s faces, except it’s me and Hyunjin and it’s from _my_ perspective, and then he asks me if he can kiss me. And my stupid monkey brain goes, ‘YES SURE, PLEASE KISS THE HELL OUT OF ME’, because his lips looked _really_ good under the lighting, and then we kissed.”

Seungmin feels a dull pain begin to throb at the front of his head. “What the fuck?”

“Exactly!” Jisung exclaims. “Who knew he’d kiss so good?”

“No, I mean ‘what the fuck’, as in since _when_ were the both of you dating?”

Jisung groans and buries his head into his pillow. “That’s the problem,” he murmurs. “We’re not dating. I don’t even know if I like him!”

Forget Felix — Seungmin feels like he’s aged _forward_ in a span of ten seconds. “Firstly, I don’t know why the hell did Hyunjin ask to kiss you? Secondly, if you don’t actually like Hyunjin, then why’d you kiss him in the first place? And thirdly, have the both of you actually kissed anytime after that day?

“Wow, that’s a lot of questions,” Jisung mutters. “I don’t know why Hyunjin wanted to kiss me, either. He just… asked. And I guess I said yes because it was the heat of the moment? And, uh…” He gulps. “We _might_ have kissed once or twice more after that night.”

Seungmin gives him a look. “ _Might_?”

“Okay, fine!” Jisung sighs. “We kissed a total of _eight_ times, including that night.”

Nothing entering Seungmin’s head seems to make any sense now. “I need some paracetamol,” he grumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose. “And a clear explanation. Why have you and Hyunjin been skirting around for the past week, then?"

Jisung leans backwards, so that his back hits the plastered wall behind him. “I mean, we’ve tried to talk things out, but it either ends up with us kissing again, or the both of us mutually ignoring the entire situation. I think… I think the both of us are kind of just sweeping it under the rug right now. I mean, I don’t even know what to think.”

“ _I_ have zero idea what to think,” Seungmin affirms. He tilts his head to meet Jisung’s eyes. “Have you ever wondered if you’ve liked him?”

“Well, I’ve tried. Then again, it’s not just about the dating ban, you know; you’d also have to consider the fact that we’re both guys and we’re kissing and we’re from the same band and this is South Korea we’re talking about-”

“-I didn’t ask about what other people think,” Seungmin interrupts. In a softer tone, he continues, “I asked what _you_ think about him.”

At this, a blanket of silence drapes over the both of them. Jisung chews on his lower lip, averting his gaze from Seungmin. After a long, drawn out moment, Jisung whispers, “Why aren’t you disgusted right now?”

“What?” Seungmin frowns. “Why would I be disgusted?”

“Because your two bandmates just kissed, even though they have zero idea what they even are,” Jisung explains. “I don’t… I don’t know what to do, Min. I guess you _could_ say I do like him, but I don’t even know if what I’m feeling is even real. Each time he kisses me, I don’t know if I want it more simply because I like the sensation, or because it’s _him_.”

“I’m not disgusted,” Seungmin assures. He pats his friend’s head with a small smile. “Whether you kiss Hyunjin or whatever else you do with him-”

“-please don’t go there, Min-”

“-I’m still happy for you both,” Seungmin continues. “I guess it’s confusing because it’s been a really long while since you’ve felt anything for anyone.” He presses his lips together into a thin line, wondering what else to say. “I do think both of you should clear things up properly, though. Too much ambiguity might obscure things between the both of you.”

He’s startled by the sudden honk blaring out next to him. His eyes snap to Jisung, who’s sniffing into a tissue and wiping his tears from his eyes. Warmth creeps into Seungmin’s chest — he’s always been a little protective of his friends, after all. He wraps both arms around Jisung’s waist and offers him a side hug, much to Jisung’s pleasant surprise. “T-thanks, Min,” Jisung sighs. “What would I do without you?”

“Probably continue to rot away in bed watching YouTube-”

“-not literally, dumbass,” Jisung barks. He leans over with kissy lips, which makes Seungmin’s face contort in disgust as he playfully shoves his face away.

Seungmin slides off the bed with a laugh. “Save that for your little Hyunjinnie,” he coos tauntingly. He dodges the pillow that Jisung hurls at him with a wicked grin, before darting right out the room towards his own bed. As soon as he’s brushed his teeth and changed into some comfortable pyjamas, Seungmin curls up in bed and gazes at the plastered wall. 

_This day has been way too wild,_ Seungmin thinks, before exhaustion overtakes his body and his eyelids slide shut. 

⇄

Much to everyone’s dismay, the second day starts off with the howling of Felix’s cries. Seungmin presses his ear against the mattress and a pillow over the other side of his face, in a pathetic attempt to block out the noise. Nothing works, and Seungmin has to suppress his exasperated sighs as he forces himself out of the bed. 

He storms into Chan’s room, only to see Chan bouncing Felix up and down in his arms. Felix’s eyes are bloodshot red from all his crying, but he seems to have settled down as soon as Chan begins crooning a song in his ears. He can’t make out what song he’s singing, but it’s definitely calmed Felix down. “What happened?” he asks, voice croaky.

Chan swivels around to see Seungmin at the door. “Oh, he said he woke up from a nightmare, right, Lixie?” Chan coos, making some awkward baby noises back at Felix. “What did you dream about that scared you so much, hm?”

Felix blubbers. “I dreamt… I dreamt that Sungie-hyung a-and Hyunjin-hyung kissed.”

Seungmin chokes on his saliva. _That’s_ the wake-up call he’d never expected to hear.

Even Chan seems amused. “Really? What was so scary about that?” he chortles. “C’mon now, let’s brush our teeth and get you changed for the day!” Seungmin can’t help but notice how relaxed Chan appears this morning, compared to yesterday afternoon. _Someone’s_ definitely adjusted to become Felix’s caretaker now. 

All of a sudden, a fleeting thought enters his mind. _Does Felix know that they kissed?_

In an instance, one dot connects to another in his mind, then another, and another, until the entire construction is complete. Seungmin’s lips part into an ‘o’ shape, and he takes off, skidding right into Jisung’s bedroom. “Jisung! Yah! Wake up!"

Startled, Jisung’s head knocks against the bed frame. “Ouch, fuck! What-” He peels his eyes open to notice a panting Seungmin crouched over his bed. “What in the world?”

“Did you…” Seungmin breathes heavily. “Did you tell Felix about you and Hyunjin, too?”

At the sound of Hyunjin’s name, Jisung’s ears perk up. He struggles to settle into a sitting position, his hair akin to a bird’s nest perched on the top of his head. “Um, yeah,” he mutters. His eyelids threaten to slip shut as he forces himself awake. “I… I told him that night he climbed into… into…” And thus, he returns to dreamland — but not on Seungmin’s watch.

The latter slaps Jisung’s back, jerking him awake. “Into my bed!” Jisung coughs. “That was the night he turned into a toddler, I think… He’d noticed how awkward it’d been when I was around Hyunjin, so he came over to ask, and I told him.”

The gears in Seungmin’s head rattle, desperately figuring out a way to chink into position. “Do you think your confession to Felix has anything to do with him being a toddler?”

“What?” Jisung scrunches up his face. “Why would me kissing Hyunjin have anything to do with Felix?”

Seungmin’s face falls in disappointment. He’d _thought_ he made a connection, a sort of explanation for why Felix has conformed into a toddler overnight. Yet, Jisung’s right — the idea is much too bewildering to make any sense, right? “Yeah, you’re right,” Seungmin mumbles. “Sorry for waking you up. I just thought I had a eureka moment there.”

His friend doesn’t seem to hear him; he’s already snoring away like there’s no tomorrow.

Seungmin scratches the nape of his neck and begins trudging out of the room, only to bump into Hyunjin at the door. “Woah, sorry!” Seungmin apologises.

The surprise is obvious on Hyunjin’s face, but it dissolves away the moment he notices Seungmin. “Hey, it’s cool,” he replies. “Is Jisung awake yet?”

“He was… then he fell back asleep.”

He watches how the back of Hyunjin’s neck turns painfully pink. “Right, haha,” Hyunjin chuckles. “I’ll wake him up then.”

Seungmin nods jerkily. Right before he exits the room, he turns around to see Hyunjin crouching close to Jisung’s bed and flicking his nose, much to Jisung’s discontent. He decides to leave the both of them alone, especially after what he’d heard from Jisung last night. _I definitely do not want to be in the middle of their make-out session,_ Seungmin groans internally. 

The rest of the day flits by in a blur, something akin to a stop-motion picture rolling before Seungmin’s eyes. After a breakfast of lopsided, buttery pancakes, all of them take turns to babysit Felix. Much to their delight, the kids’ toys and milk had already been delivered in another location to deter any suspicion from any outsiders, so Jeongin and Minho volunteer to go ahead and retrieve them. Seungmin helps out Hyunjin as he continues to sew more shirts and some pants for Felix, who finds solace in playing patty cake with Chan and Jisung. 

Lunchtime, though, is a different affair.

In the middle of eating some Japanese takeout, Chan receives a call. He excuses himself from the table and exits the kitchen. After a long while, he returns back with a distraught expression on his face.

Minho peers up. “What happened, hyung?” he asks, popping a green bean into his mouth.

Chan sighs. “They couldn’t cancel the interview for tomorrow,” he explains slowly. “It’s been scheduled for a while now, and they really want us on that show. I’ve asked our managers if just three or four of us could go, so the rest of us can take care of Lix. They’re trying to confirm with the producers now.

“If they manage to get that done, then Minho, Changbin, Jeongin and I will go. That’ll leave Jisung, Hyunjin and Seungmin to take care of Lix, okay?”

“Oh, goodness,” Jisung groans overdramatically. “I can assure you that y’all will come back to see the dorm blown up.”

Chan rolls his eyes, but there’s a small smile on his lips. “Which is why I assigned the three of you. Since you three are closest to Felix, I’m quite sure you guys can take care of him.” Chan slides his phone into his back pocket before crouching down to meet Felix’s gaze. “You’ll be good for your hyungs, won’t you, Lixie?”

Felix burps in response.

In Seungmin’s mind, though, a hurricane rages strongly and sweeps away everything in its vicinity. How's he going to handle being some third wheeler with a toddler in his arms for an entire afternoon?

⇄

Tomorrow rolls by much too fast for Seungmin’s taste.

The four of them had left in the morning for styling, leaving Seungmin, Hyunjin and Jisung alone in the dormitory to entertain Felix. The three of them stare on as Felix plays with a toy truck on the mats they’ve laid out on the floors. 

“This,” Jisung sighs, “is a mistake. Why did Chan hyung leave us with caretaking duty?”

Hyunjin shrugs. “Beats me,” he mumbles. 

Much to Jisung’s disdain, Felix begins crawling across the mat over to where he’s sat cross-legged. “Sungie-hyung!” he squeaks, charging right at him. Jisung yelps as the younger one bowls over him to clamber into his lap.

“Felix, c’mon now,” Jisung cries, balancing Felix in his arms as he crashes onto his side, on the mat. “Felix, calm down, calm down!”

Seungmin sniggers. “I think you’re the one who should calm down,” he points out, before scrambling to his feet. “I’ll get us some snacks from the kitchen.”

As he rummages through the cupboards in search of the microwave popcorn Minho had bought around last time (“No one is allowed to eat it,” Minho claimed, glaring at all seven of them. “I bought them specifically for myself.”) thinking that it’d be okay to steal a bit, just for Felix (and himself, of course). He pours some out of the packet into a huge bowl, before popping it into the microwave. While waiting for the kernels to pop, he pours out a few glasses of soda for the rest of them. 

Outside, he hears a crash resound from the living room. Seungmin jerks, almost sending the bottle of soda clattering to the ground. Without a moment’s hesitation, he rushes out of the kitchen into the living room. “What happened-”

Within the span of five minutes that he’d left the three of them alone, he can clearly see Hyunjin clutching his head with a groan, Jisung balancing the coffee table that had fallen over, and Felix blubbering into a crying mess on the floor. Seungmin definitely feels a headache coming on.

“I was gone for five minutes,” he grumbles, exasperated. “Five minutes! What the hell happened in five minutes?!”

“Felix wanted to surf on the coffee table,” Hyunjin grouches, hissing in pain as he rubs the side of his head. “He was about to fall, so I caught him. But then Jisung _also_ tried to catch him, and my leg hit the table, and I fell to the floor with Felix in my arms.”

Seungmin throws his hands up in the air in defeat. “You know what? I’ll take care of Felix. The both of you, go and get the snacks from the kitchen.” He scoops Felix up into his arms and shuffles over to the couch, exasperated. “You know you can’t let him play around dangerously; we can’t afford to send him to the hospital.”

Both Jisung and Hyunjin hang their heads low and mumble incoherent apologies, before rushing off to the kitchen. Sighing, Seungmin balances Felix on his leg and gazes down at the boy. His tears spill out the corners of his eyes and run down his freckled cheeks. “Hey, hey,” he whispers. “It’s okay, okay? I’m here now. No need to cry.”

Before he can say anything else, though, Felix taps Seungmin’s chin with his index finger. “Hyungie,” he mutters. “Hyunjin and Jisung… puk puk!”

Seungmin furrows his eyebrows. He definitely does _not_ understand baby language at all. “What did they do?” he quizzes.

“Hyunjin and Sungie kissed,” Felix mumbles into his shirt, burying his head into the space between Seungmin’s chin and his shoulder. “But they’re… they’re angry now.”

Seungmin remembers distinctly how Jisung admitted that Felix knew about them kissing. His eyes widen at the memory of his predicament yesterday, and how ridiculous it had sounded at first. Now, though, Seungmin gazes down at the boy in astonishment. “Uh huh, and why do you say that?”

Felix purses his lips together. “I don’t like them being angry.”

“So what do you want them to do?”

Felix peers up sheepishly. “Why can’t they be happy?” he whispers.

Seungmin laughs. He _cannot_ believe he’s having this conversation right now with a three-year-old Felix. “Because they’re complicated men,” he replies, grinning wickedly. “And they’re very, very confused.”

“I wish they can be together,” Felix admits, nuzzling his nose against Seungmin’s shirt. “Then they can kiss every day! And they’ll be happy forever.”

“Right.” Absent-mindedly, Seungmin strokes Felix’s hair as he delves deep into his thoughts. What if Felix had _really_ turned into a toddler because of whatever that’s going on between Hyunjin and Jisung? He faintly remembers his mother’s words when he was younger and much more naive, always in wonder about the world. He squeezes his eyes shut, trying desperately to recall her exact words.

_(“Your father and I always argued every single day,” his mother had admitted. “But after we had your older sister, and then you, the arguments went away, because we were so preoccupied with taking care of you two. I guess you can say that kids bring peace to the family, right? Haha! Kids are like the natural Cupids for us.”)_

A lightbulb goes off in Seungmin’s head. “Felix,” he whisper-shouts. “You absolute devious genius-”

“-did he just fall asleep on you?” Jisung questions, snapping Seungmin out of his daze. Seungmin blinks, glancing down only to see Felix fast asleep against his shirt, drool beginning to collect on a crease in his shirt. Jisung crunches loudly on his popcorn as he sets down the bowl. “This man can fall asleep anywhere, seriously.”

Right after him, Hyunjin stumbles into the room, balancing a tray of the drinks. “Why’s he so gentle with Seungmin and so rough with the both of us?” he huffs, pained. “It’s as if he hates the sight of the both of us!”

Seungmin can’t help the devious grin that forms on his lips. _Quite the opposite, actually,_ he thinks. _Quite the opposite._

⇄

“What?” Chan blinks. “This is the first time you’ve ever suggested a place to hang out.”

Seungmin blinks up innocently from his dinner. “It’s a perfect idea,” he smiles. “We’ve all been stressed out about what’s been happening in the past week, so I think we should all unwind and take a breather. Obviously, Hyunjin and Jisung have to take care of Felix, given how they basically made me do all the work this afternoon.”

Across him, Jisung begins spitting and sputtering like a cranky machine. “What?! We _did_ help out!” he protests. “Felix just hates the both of us!” There’s a crazed look in his eye, as if Jisung were imagining ten ways to choke Seungmin to death. Seungmin simply winks back at him.

“He doesn’t,” Seungmin argues. “And the both of you managed to spill soda all over the mats, so you both need to take responsibility for that.”

“I hate to admit it,” Chan chuckles, “but Seungmin’s actually right.”

At the end of the table, Hyunjin slumps forward and presses his forehead to the table. As everyone begins teasing both of them for being irresponsible, Jisung flashes Seungmin a look. Seungmin simply raises his shoulders in a shrug, before grinning and returning his attention to his pasta.

When Jisung corners him in his room afterwards, his mouth doesn’t stop running. “What are you doing?! Why’re you leaving me and him in a room together? Do you actually want me to die?!” he wails.

Seungmin clicks his tongue. “I’m doing it for your sake, and for Hyunjin’s, too,” he points out. “Until when will the both of you stop skirting around your feelings?”

“That’s the thing,” Jisung hisses. “Look, he hasn’t kissed me for at least three days now. Three days! All he does is give me weird looks and stare at me like I’m his first meal in a dozen years. And I’m still terribly confused with my own feelings, Min ah!”

“Then this is the perfect opportunity for you to learn something about yourself,” Seungmin replies. He pats Jisung’s shoulder. “You’ll thank me for this later, really.”

Despite the two boys’ protests, Chan makes the final call later at night, after Felix is tucked to sleep. Seungmin can’t help the euphoria licking away at the depths of his gut as he watches Hyunjin and Jisung gaze at each other, clearly upset. Changbin noogies the both of them on his way to his bedroom, and Minho simply teases the lot of them.

By the time the sun rises the following day, Seungmin feels absolutely refreshed. He feels as if he’s arisen from a sleep that had lasted a million years. He throws the curtains apart and basks in the warmth of the sun as it casts its ochre rays through the windows of the dormitory room. He relishes in the dawn of the day, broken only by Minho’s muffled protests to _close the fucking curtains, Seungmin, holy shit!_

He hums to himself as he changes for the day. Soon enough, the rest of the dormitory begins to rouse from their sleep, and change up for their day off outside. As Seungmin slips on his sneakers, he notices Jisung nervously making his way over to him. “I don’t know if I can do this, Min,” he hisses into his ear. “What if I just make things worse between the both of us?”

Seungmin flicks the other’s forehead, earning him a howl of pain. “You won’t,” he replies. “Knowing you, your mouth will probably run like crazy, but I can tell this is something serious for Hyunjin, too. Just be yourself around him, and make sure Felix doesn’t do any table surfing anymore.”

“Aye aye, captain,” Jisung deadpans, before turning on his heel and striding off towards the bedrooms.

Once they’re all ready, they shout choruses of goodbyes to Hyunjin and Jisung before heading out the door. Seungmin suggested that they all watch the latest romance comedy that recently premiered in the cinemas a few days ago. Since the cinema is only a few minutes’ walk from their dormitory, they’ve decided to reach there on foot.

Throughout the movie, though, Seungmin’s mind keeps drifting back to his two friends now locked in a dorm with their kid friend. He purses his lips together as he wonders whether Felix is actually safe in their hands. After all, he’d had to witness the way Jisung almost dropped Felix from his arms the other day. 

Noticing the way he’s fidgeting, Changbin, who’s sitting beside him, turns and scans Seungmin’s face. “What’s wrong?” he whispers, his voice almost drowned out by the background music as the lead characters on-screen stare into each other’s eyes. 

“Nothing,” Seungmin dismisses. 

Changbin doesn’t say anything after that, but the perplexed look on Seungmin’s face doesn’t melt away, even after the movie is done rolling and they’re grabbing lunch at one of their favourite Korean restaurants. As Seungmin scoops up another mouthful of rice, the older picks up some grilled meat and places it atop his bowl of rice. When Seungmin’s eyes snap up to meet Changbin’s, he notices the way the other mouths _Is anything wrong?_

_No._

A faint ghost of a smile finds its place on Changbin’s lips. _I need to tell you something,_ he mouths. _Walk with me later?_

Baffled, Seungmin can only nod, before the older grins and returns to beg Minho for more meat, much to Minho’s annoyance. Blinking, Seungmin continues to eat in silence, wondering what on Earth Changbin would want to tell him at all.

After lunch, they decide to go down their separate paths: Chan, Jeongin and Minho head off in search of a gift for Hyunjin, whose birthday is coming up soon, whilst Changbin steers Seungmin in the direction of a nearby arcade, claiming he wants to beat Seungmin at one of the car ride games. As soon as they’ve veered out of the others’ view, Seungmin swivels around and folds his arms across his chest. “What did you want to tell me?”

Changbin smiles. “You purposely wanted to leave the both of them alone with Lix, right?” he asks, teasingly.

Seungmin gulps. “I mean… have you seen the both of them recently? They’ve been, I don’t know, acting a little weird, right?”  
  
For once, Changbin doesn’t say anything. Instead, he cocks his head to the side in deep thought. “I’m not sure whether I should be telling you this,” he murmurs. “But I suspect you know about it too.”

“Know about what?”

Changbin offers him a pointed look. “I guess I’ll say it first then,” he relents. “I think it was the last day of promotions? I finished showering and was about to ask Jisung for his lotion since mine had run out. I was about to walk into his room, but the door was left ajar, and-”

“-you walked in on them kissing?!” Seungmin gasps.

“No, no!” Changbin screeches. “I didn’t walk into the room, I just… saw them in his bed. I’m pretty sure they were making out, because Jisung was making these really weird noises and there was a lot of kissing-”

“-save me the details,” Seungmin breathes, slapping a hand over Changbin’s mouth. He blinks, not knowing what to say at all. “I really don’t want to have some really crude image in my mind.”

When he slowly retracts his arm, Seungmin’s mind continues to whir, as if he were caught in the eye of a hurricane. “You knew about them,” he mutters. “And does Jisung know about it?”

“No,” Changbin answers, pursing his lips together. “I didn’t want to ask him because I realised how… how awkward things were between him and Hyunjin afterwards, so I thought maybe something wrong happened. And then you suggested leaving both of them alone to take care of Lix, and I thought maybe you knew about the both of them.”

Seungmin clasps his hands together with a sigh. “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone,” he admits. “Jisung made me pinkie promise to him, so I requested that he settle everything between him and Hyunjin today.”

At this, Changbin snorts. “Think about it. It took them months to make up as friends back when we were trainees. How long d’you think it’s going to take for them to finally admit their feelings to each other?”

“They have feelings for each other?” Seungmin gapes.

Changbin barks with laughter. “Have you not seen the way they look at each other during practice? I swear, the sexual tension is thick enough to suffocate the rest of us. Thank goodness I didn’t literally walk in on them; I would’ve had nightmares for the rest of my life.”

“Poor Binnie hyung, he almost had his twenty-one-year-old eyes scarred,” Seungmin says impassively, earning himself a slap on the arm. “Okay, but let’s be serious — do you think they’re actually capable of taking care of Felix?”

Changbin shrugs. “They haven’t called or texted us. I think we can give them a couple more hours, and we’ll return back to see how things have turned out.”

As the both of them trudge off to the arcade to play away their worries, Seungmin chews on his lower lip thoughtfully. _Hopefully, things will actually work out between them,_ he thinks. He can only wonder how long it’ll be before one of them cracks first. 

⇄

Seungmin stumbles into the foyer last, too terrified to even look at the state of the dormitory room. To everyone’s surprise, the dining room seems absolutely clean, save for an empty bowl in the sink. The mats on the living room are devoid of any toys, and there doesn’t seem to be any bloodshed anywhere. 

“Wow,” Chan muses. “I guess they actually did a good job- Holy fuck.”

Everyone clambers into the living room to see what has shocked Chan enough to make him curse. Seungmin’s eyes bug right out of his skull. Right there, laid down in the couch, in clothes at least five sizes too small for him, is Felix. Felix Lee Yongbok, their bandmate, their best friend, in his twenty-year-old form, fast asleep on the pillows.

“Holy shit,” Seungmin whispers. “It worked.”

Jeongin screams so loudly that Felix is immediately jolted awake. He winces as the fabric stretches over his neck. “Ow, what the fuck?”

Chaos erupts in a matter of minutes. Chan bursts into tears and rushes over to embrace Felix, Minho and Changbin try to get Felix out of his clothes (and end up tearing the fabric where the seams had already given way), and Jeongin does a little happy dance right there in the middle of the living room.

Seungmin grins. He’s glad Felix has returned to his normal form, but he certainly hasn’t forgotten about the side characters in this movie of his life. He tiptoes over to Jisung’s room, where the door is left ajar, and peeks in. Sure enough, the night light on Jisung’s bedside table casts shadows upon the two boys curled up in Jisung’s bed, their lips brushing against each other as Hyunjin giggles against Jisung’s lips.

Something fond blossoms in full bloom, right in Seungmin’s chest, and he carefully closes the door shut. Oblivious to his presence, the two boys continue to kiss in the dark, every bit of obscurity in their relationship having dissipated into something more solid and more profound, a love that feels so sure to them both.

When Seungmin swivels around, he’s shocked to see Changbin standing there. “So are they fucking yet?” he asks, which only earns him a sharp nudge in the ribs from Seungmin.

The rest of the night feels like a dream. Felix manages to take a shower and dress in his own clothes, before crashing into the couch and a billion questions that everyone else throws at him. “What was it like?” “Were you in control of your own words and your actions?” “Do you still remember the lyrics to our songs? Our choreography?!”

Felix laughs, a deep rumbling sound that Seungmin hadn’t realised he’d missed so much. “I was most definitely conscious throughout the whole ordeal,” he explains. “It was fun being babied by you lot, but I definitely miss being twenty again.”

Felix seems to notice Seungmin in his peripheral vision, and winks right at Seungmin. The latter smothers his giggles, and places his fingertips together to mime kissing, before pointing in the direction of the bedrooms. Felix snorts and rolls his eyes, mouthing _Lovestruck_ back at him. 

A resounding crash resonates throughout the dorm, causing everyone to jump. Before anyone can question it, Jisung and Hyunjin stumble out of the bedroom. They might as well have travelled to hell and back — their lips are red and bruised, their tee shirts wrinkled, and their hair sticking up at ends, and for once, Seungmin knows their hair is certainly _not_ the product of a particular toddler tugging at them. 

“Woah, hey!” Jisung chuckles. “The baby’s all grown up!”

Hyunjin grins. “Glad to have you back, Lix.”

Amused, Felix raises his eyebrows. “Glad to see you both, too, seeing as you both ditched me right after I ate lunch,” he snorts. “Jisung, your neckline is on display.”

Jisung glances down at his neck and shoulders, mottled with purple and blue. If Seungmin squints close enough, he swears he can make out the outline of a bite mark on his clavicle. “Uh,” Jisung blinks. “I can explain.”

“Oh, spare us the details,” Changbin cackles. “Just please don’t rupture out eardrums at night, yeah?”

Seungmin, Changbin and Felix immediately erupt into a fit of giggles, watching as the two boys caught red-handed begin to flush a deep red. Chan and Minho exchange confused glances. Jeongin glances around them, mutters a “Gosh, you’re all so weird” before sauntering off to his bedroom in search of some peace and quiet.

Hyunjin wraps an arm around Jisung’s waist and presses a soft kiss against his forehead. “Guess our secret’s out, baby.”

“Ew, do not call me that.”

“You liked it when I called you just now-”

“-don’t corrupt our baby’s ears!” Changbin taunts, laughing as he ruffles Felix’s hair. Felix groans and shoves Changbin’s arm away, much to the older’s disappointment.

Seungmin can only watch on contentedly, absolutely convulsed by the scene before him. He can’t believe all it took for his two friends to get together was the help of fate and a little baby Cupid in the form of his best friend and bandmate. 

“I’m going to go sleep,” Felix yawns. “It’s been a long day.”

Chan frowns. “You just woke up, though?” he points out.

Felix snorts. “You really thought I was going to sleep? Hell no. I’m going to be playing games till dawn; I can’t believe I was deprived of playing Fortnite this whole time.” He throws a hand up to wave dismissively at them all. “Good fuckin’ night.”

⇄

If Seungmin had known he’d be waking up to the gross public display of affection at Exhibit A aka their kitchen every morning from now on, he would’ve thought of a different solution to get Felix back to his twenty-year-old form. 

“Guys,” Seungmin groans. “I haven’t even eaten breakfast yet.”

Jisung leans back from where Hyunjin’s pressing kisses against his jawline. “It’s okay, we haven’t brushed our teeth yet, Hyunjin has terrible morning breath, but we’re still kissing!”

“That,” Seungmin deadpans, “has nothing to do with breakfast.”

Felix chuckles as he shuffles into the kitchen. “Please don’t slobber all over the table,” he grins, before reaching into the fridge and pulling out their carton of milk. He pours out a glass for himself, takes a sip before spitting it out. “That is not our fresh milk,” he groans, sticking his tongue out.

“Oh, it’s not,” Changbin agrees, as he strides into the kitchen. “We replaced all our fresh milk with your baby milk.”

Felix blinks. “And why?”

“It tastes good?” Changbin snorts, snatching the carton of milk from Felix’s hands, before downing the rest of the milk. Felix and Seungmin watch on in horror. The lovestruck couple even stops sucking each other’s faces off to stare at Changbin. Once he’s finished every last drop of milk, Changbin lowers the carton and burps.

Seungmin smiles. “Well, at least we know who’s the real baby in the group now.” 

Seungmin dodges Changbin’s animalistic pounce by hiding behind his two friends who continue to kiss like there’s no tomorrow, and laughs at the absurdity of it all. His life may seem crazy, living with these seven other members in one same dormitory, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

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